The Best UX Reads of April

This April, there were some pretty interesting user experience articles published. I put together a list of some of the articles that stuck out to me, with topics including personalization, and real-time features. Another fascinating topic I came across is an article that discusses the exact percentage of brightness of the color gray that can make or break your customer’s experience on your website. Your definitely don’t want to miss this!

In this enticing futuristic article, Nir Eyal discusses the user experience of the future. By pairing technologies with human assistants the results will literally be out of this world. Eyal states that from this innovative idea, new products will emerge which promise to enhance our lives. Certain products, which for example will guide a customer to find the cheapest ticket when booking online. Imagine what this means for user experience and our customers!

Creating an ideal user experience is about more than just design. There are so many more aspects involved, and so many more specialties. In this article by TECHVED, it’s suggested that the creative team and content curators work together in order to product a successful user experience design. The reasons why content strategy is important for UX may not be so obvious, however bad content can ruin a good user experience, and vice versa.

User experience is essentially the universal personal experience. Imagine an app designed to react to various actions the user makes by using the data gathered from the device in order to adapt to fulfill the user’s preferences. In this article, the concept of moving from customization to personalization in order to create a unified user experience is discussed by listing various aspects that go into personalizing a digital experience.

Real-time technology provides users with information immediately, ensuring they don’t have to wait around to receive the desired information. Lauren Plews discusses how essential it is; whether or not this should be a required feature or simply an added bonus. She takes us back to the original adopters of real-time technology in attempt to understand how crucial it is to the UX of your product. Will real-time technology be expected of your company? Or will customers simply see it as an attractive feature?

In order to improve an enterprise product’s user experience and business value, the company must invest in user research, states Rian van der Merwe. User research is an exceptionally valuable tool that provides a way to focus the entire team on the important goals needed to produce a successful product. Rian van der Merwe provides a useful guide on how to run successful UX research.

There are many factors that affect the visual user experience. Customers may not always be able to identify the specific shade or font that appeals to them, which is why the experts are here to identify it for them. In this article, the problem of making your text too light is addressed, especially when it’s in gray. From potential navigational problems to causing eye strain, if the gray is too light it can cause major problems for the users. Which is why 46% brightness is the limit to how light the gray scale should be, and should never exceed that number.

Simplicity in UX design isn’t as simple as you may think. Tom Krcha delves into the complicated topic of achieving a simplistic design. “User experience is threatened when the simplicity of an interface design comes at the expense of usability,” Krcha states. When features are buried or buttons aren’t labeled correctly it causes many issues. Krcha discusses how important it is that a design be strategic and take into account the users’ customs.

In my latest article an interesting perspective on the historical advancement of UX is discussed. Beginning with the Industrial Revolution, to present day digital UX, a fascinating timeline of the evolution of UX over the years is laid out. I enjoyed researching the article very much, I hope you find this history of UX as remarkable as I did!